In hmolscience, applicability, as opposed to non-applicability, tends to refer to the applicability of various scientific laws and principles, e.g. second law, uncertainty principle, conservation of energy, information theory, Pauli exclusion principle, Boltzmann entropy, wave-particle duality, wave function collapse, etc., to human individual and or human social phenomena; a subject that tends to involve the extrapolate up method.
Overview
There is exists some ongoing and prevalent confusions concerning the applicability of thermodynamics to human affairs; some believing thermodynamics to be not applicable to human affairs; some believing it applicable, but not applying the correct version of thermodynamics to human social processes and affairs.
In 1910, Joseph Klein, in his The Physical Significance of Entropy, stated his view that is conceivable that the second law is applicable to animate events: [1]
“The second law in its objective-physical form (freed from all anthropomorphism) refers to certain mean values which are found from a great number of like and ‘chaotic’ elements. This law has no independent significance, for its roots go down deep into the theory of probabilities. It is therefore conceivable that it is applicable to some purely human and animate events as well as to inanimate, natural events, provided the variable elements present constitute adequate haphazard for the calculus of probabilities.”
In 1975, American chemical mineralogist Norman Dolloff, in his Heat Death and the Phoenix: Entropy, Order, and the Future of Man, discussed how he had pondered for a number of years, whether or not thermodynamics were applicable to the whole range of human activity; the book's dust-jacket summarizes this as follows: [3]
“Is the universe running down? Will the highly organized structures of matter and life be transformed at last into a state of inert uniformity? Or will matter and life develop ever more efficient structures capable of making use of the energy of the universe? The author pondering the significance of the laws of thermodynamics, realized that they were applicable not only to physics and chemistry but to all the natural sciences, and indeed to the whole range of human activity: psychology, history, music, philosophy and religion. Now, in this incisive and wide-ranging study, he shows how an understanding of the laws of thermodynamics in all their ramifications may enable man to organize his future and control the destiny of life in accordance with the fundamental principles that govern the universe.”
In 1995, Jay Labinger commented the following on Joseph Klein's applicability assertion: [2]
“Klein’s [human applicability assertion] suggests that a minimum requirement for applicability of the second law is a sufficiently large number of elements—an Avogadro's number of people, perhaps? [see: social Avogadro number]—as well as hinting at issues such as free will versus random actions.”
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Quotes
The following are related quotes:
“The law of conservation applies to some things and not to others, and the things which it does not apply are unreal.”
— James Johnstone (1914), The Philosophy of Biology (see: Johnstone-Pavlovich rule)
“It’s by no means clear, by the way, that the second law of thermodynamics applies to the universe as a whole, because it is an experimental law, and we don’t have experience with the universe as a whole.”
— Carl Sagan (1985), “The God Hypothesis” (Ѻ) in The Varieties of Scientific Experience
“I admit, open systems do exist and can be described with thermodynamics; nonetheless, their application to group dynamics is a major stretch, and modeling human relationships on them involves all sorts of unstated assumptions, for instance that a state function (like Gibbs free energy) even applies. Or that they're spontaneous.”
— The Literature Engineer (2005), opinion on human thermodynamics (Ѻ), Jun
“Where did Gibbs state that ‘a society is one such material system’? He didn't — that is your particular (incorrect) reading of the application of thermodynamics.”
— Philip Moriarty (2009), response to the following video “Entropy: Sixty Symbols” (Ѻ) thread post by Thims: “As for your *worries* (regarding state functions of humans), quoting from Gibbs (1876): the comprehension of the laws which govern any material system is greatly facilitated by considering the energy and entropy of the system in the various states of which it is capable. A society is one such material system. If you think that you are exempt from these laws, that is your prerogative”, Aug 30
“Even Leonard, in his closing [Rossini debate] response, appreciates the difference between drawing an *analogy* between thermodynamic functions of state and features of society, and the claim that one can **equate** [apply] a thermodynamic entropy/enthalpy/free energy with properties of human relationships/society. It is this distinction between analogy and mathematical/physical equivalence that is so important and which you seem unable to grasp.”
— Philip Moriarty (2009), Moriarty-Thims debate (part two) (post #128), Sep 12 8:50 PM EDT
“I am not the originator of the premise of the non-metaphor application of thermodynamic entropy/enthalpy/free energy functions to human society, although I arrived at this view independently. People to have pioneered this view include: Johann Goethe (1809) – affinity (free energy), human chemical reactions; Georg Helm (1887): energy, entropy; Leon Winiarski (1897): energy, entropy; Wilhelm Ostwald (1906): social energy; Mehdi Bazargan (1950): free energy, internal energy, entropy, temperature, and so on (dozens more). So to Phil: are all of us crackpots for thinking that state functions apply to systems of humans, or am I the only crackpot?”
— Libb Thims (2009), Moriarty-Thims debate (part two) (post #160), Sep 12 10:34 AM EDT; similar digression is found in: Ilya Prigogine’s 1977 Nobel Lecture “obviously” comment; and Mala Radhakrishnan’s 23 Sep 2013 tweet
See also
● Applied human thermodynamics
● Worthless application
References
1. (a) Klein, Joseph F. (1910). Physical Significance of Entropy: or of the Second Law (humans, pg. 89-90). D. van Nostrand.
(b) Labinger, Jay A. (1995). “Metaphoric Usage of the Second Law: Entropy as Time's (double-headed) Arrow in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia”, Presented at Nov meeting of the Society for Literature and Science, Los Angeles; in: The Chemical Intelligencer (pg. 32), Oct. 31-36, 1996.
2. Labinger, Jay A. (1995). “Metaphoric Usage of the Second Law: Entropy as Time's (double-headed) Arrow in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia”, Presented at Nov meeting of the Society for Literature and Science, Los Angeles; in: The Chemical Intelligencer (pg. 31), Oct. 31-36, 1996.
3. (a) Dolloff, Norman H. (1975). Heat Death and the Phoenix: Entropy, Order, and the Future of Man (free energy, 27+ pgs). Exposition Press.
(b) Shrock, Robert R. (1982). Geology at MIT 1865-1965: a History of the First Hundred Years of Geology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Department Operations and Projects (§:Norman H. Dolloff (S.B. 1930), pgs. H-19-20). MIT Press.
Further reading
● Wayne, James J. (2014). “Generalized Second Law of Thermodynamics and its Applications in Social Science” (abs), SSRN, Oct 29.
